Firefighters battling Belgium’s largest modern-day wildfire were counting on crucial air support Sunday to help tame the blaze in a hard-to-access nature reserve, after it doubled in size over the previous 24 hours.<\/p>\n
More than 250 firefighters and emergency personnel were mobilized through the night, according to a Sunday morning update from the regional government which warned conditions in the High Fens park near the German border “remain challenging”.<\/p>\n
From 80 hectares burned on Friday, the day the fire broke out for reasons still unknown, the area affected jumped to 850 Saturday morning — and by early Sunday had spread to 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres), authorities said.<\/p>\n
The blaze broke out in an area of fragile peatlands and pine forests that was ravaged by massive wildfires in 1911, during a similar period of heatwaves and drought — and is the country’s largest wildfire since then.<\/p>\n
The entire area near the German border has been blanketed by a thick plume of yellowish smoke, prompting the evacuation of residents from parts of two villages close to the fire.<\/p>\n
No homes have been damaged so far, but the blaze remains out of control.<\/p>\n
Several fire fronts were still active on Sunday, authorities said, with winds regularly changing direction and complicating efforts to contain the flames.<\/p>\n
Firefighters from across Belgium and from Germany have been deployed to assist, supported by next-generation fire engines.<\/p>\n
Authorities said operations were “particularly complex” because of the fens’ terrain — a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks where heavy vehicles risk sinking into the ground, and firefighters struggle to tackle the fire at close range.<\/p>\n
Rescue teams have also been unable to access the area where the fire first broke out, meaning its cause remains unknown.<\/p>\n
– Help from the skies –<\/p>\n
Firefighters were counting heavily on aerial assistance to help bring the situation under control — with reinforcements from several European countries set to swing into action on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Belgian federal police helicopters and Dutch aircraft were seen operating Sunday morning, repeatedly drawing water from a nearby lake.<\/p>\n
Additional helicopters from the Czech Republic and Swedish water-bombing aircraft were due to become operational later in the day, under the European Union civil protection mechanism activated by Belgium.<\/p>\n
Speaking to AFP on Saturday, European Commissioner Hadja Lahbib said Norway and Germany may also send additional aerial support.<\/p>\n
“Thank you to our European partners for the assistance they are providing,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Authorities also praised local farmers, many of whom have made water tankers available to support firefighting operations.<\/p>\n
Like much of Europe, Belgium has experienced a fresh spell of intense heat and drought in recent days.<\/p>\n
Temperatures reached as high as 37C in some parts of the country on Friday, creating conditions conducive to wildfire outbreaks.<\/p>\n
(AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Firefighters battling Belgium’s largest modern-day wildfire were counting on crucial air support Sunday to help tame the blaze…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2894,400,5339,169,7695,2895,7697,7696,7698,865,7699,1176,2178,7694,1165],"class_list":["post-32733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-breaking-news","tag-china","tag-english-daily","tag-finance","tag-free-newspaper","tag-headlines","tag-hong-kong-media","tag-hong-kong-news","tag-hong-kong-news-media","tag-latest-news","tag-sing-tao","tag-sports","tag-standard","tag-the-standard","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117104498776799435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}